Why consider used mobile homes? My own first home was a mobile on a small lot. I bought it for $19,500. With the mortgage payments it was still cheaper than renting, plus I paid it off quickly and later sold it for $45,000. Obviously you can live cheap an...

One of the simplest ways to buy a cheap house is to make a low offer. Sometimes called a "lowball" offer, this is a basic ploy used in real estate and many other negotiations. Everyone knows the technique, but most are afraid to use it. It can be a waste ...

Should you do your own pre-purchase inspection? Yes and no. Yes, you should inspect a house before you write an offer on it. Then you should put an inspection contingency clause in the offer, and hire a professional inspector. Why do both? Doing your o...

Want to be a bargain finder? Want to be the one that always finds the deals and has money left over? Start by learning the secrets of opportunism. Do you know that you can eat a wider variety of fruit than your neighbor, and spend only half as much to ...

Is there any good reason to do your own home inspection? How about to get a better deal. Every flaw you can find is a negotiating point. You don't have to learn building codes, and you probably should use a professional inspector in any case. The point of...

A frugal shopper has skills and ways of looking at things that help him or her take advantage of the money-saving opportunities in life. There are eleven of these techniques below. You can learn them in a matter of a day or two, practice them for a few w...

What is real estate value? It isn't what you have into your house. It isn't what you feel it is worth. It is what the market will pay. How do you figure out what the market will pay? For single family homes, the best way is by seeing what similar homes ha...

Buying FSBO real estate, or houses for sale by owner, has its own particular problems and opportunities. Dealing with an uninformed seller who thought he knew enough to handle everything by himself can be frustrating, but it can also be very profitable if...

You can sell your own home, but it can be a time-consuming and frustrating process. Usually I would recommend listing with an agent, but in the right market, it may make sense to save the commission and do it yourself. If you try, use the tips here to do ...

This is the age of creative real estate financing. Maybe you remember when financing meant you saved up enough to put 20% down on a house, and then got a mortgage loan for the other 80%? You can still do that, but there are many more options now. Here are...

Nothing down? Exactly why would a seller want to walk away from closing with nothing? The truth is, they normally wouldn't, and that brings up the most important point about real estate investing with no downpayment: A seller almost always needs cash at c...

One of the most important principles of real estate negotiation is to learn why the seller is selling. More than that though, you want to try to learn the seller's motivations for every aspect of the process. In other words, learn not just why he wants to...

Maybe you've read lots of advice on selling a house. But do you know the biggest mistake many people make when selling a house? Not understanding real estate value. You see, it doesn't matter what you think your home is worth. It doesn't matter what y...

You probably already know some of the secrets of how to make an offer on a home. You offer less than you're willing to pay, right? That's the most common negotiation technique. For experienced investors, though, that's just one technique among many more p...

Is real estate investing only for the wealthy? Can you buy with no money down? Do you have to know the "right" people? Let's answer by looking at some of the myths of real estate. 1. Real estate investing is for the wealthy. Money helps, but my first ...